Help requested from the Hard Forum experts

[rss33]

I'm sure several of you have built many more PC's than I have, so please lend me your wisdom and teach me the ways.

- Mostly a gaming PC with some work thrown in
- Budget unlimted within reason
- United States
- CPU, GPU(S), RAM, Cooler, SSD's, MB
- Reusing case - Cool Master HAF with glass window (Best Case ever)
- Overclocking , not really but maybe on the CPU a little
- Monitors 3 28" monitors I want to run everything in 5xxxXxxxx resolution 2D
- New PC - Ordering Parts as soon as enough say ya or na
- MB Features - Would like dual 16x16 pcie slots
- Yes Windows 7, 64BIT


Here's what I've spec'd out after weeks of research, any suggestions or anything you might do different?



MOTHERBOARD
Asus Rampage IV Extreme , has dual 16x16 and allows for tri sli at 16x16x8.
It was a tossup between this one and the ASRock Extreme 11 which allowed 16x 3

CPU
Intel I7 - 3930K Sandy Bridge-E : Given the extra horsepower under the hood it
seemed like a no brainer over the 22500/2700 + OC'ing to 4.7 on air sounds easy

CPU COOLER
Noctua ND-H14 . I've got a ThermalTek V1 now, but I've read Noctua is about the best

Memory/RAM
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133
I was unsure if Ripjaws Z would be better being for the X79 specific but everything I
could find says stick with the X even on X79 socket 2011

GPU
2 EVGA GTX 4GB SuperClocked 670's.

SSD
1 Samsung 830 series 128GB for OS
1 Samsung 830 series 256GB for games (example Shogun which is so slow to load
onan HHD)


Question - I don't understand SLI and video memory. If I get 2 cards and SLI them it won't give me 8GB, the cards split the memory and continue to use 4GB .... but why does performance in games increase so much then if it's still the same amount of memory. How is the 2nd card in SLI helping?

Thanks a bunch.

 

[cyclone3d]

Looks like a decent setup...

SLI increases speed by increasing the processing power. It isn't all about RAM.

As for the processor, you can cut quite a bit off of the cost.
Look on Ebay for an unlocked ES CPU... an 8c/16t can be had for around $450 that will most likely be able to overclock just as much as the 3960k, plus you will have 2c/4t more available and 5MB more L3 cache than the 3960k.

The 6c/12t ones are also cheaper on Ebay.

The 3960k is not worth the extra cost over the 3930k... The only real advantage it has is more L3 cache.

As for the CPU cooler, the NH-D14 is awesome.. and if you configure the fans so you have a fan on each side blowing into the center instead of two fans blowing the same way, you can drop the temp a few degrees.

The ASROCK x79 Extreme 11 can actually do 4 way SLI / CrossfireX with all 4 slots running at x16

Look at this thread for the +s and -s for that board
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1678114

I cannot reccomend an ASUS board.. check out the ASUS horror RMA thread under the motherboard forum.

 

[rss33]

Cyclone thanks for the quick reply and tips/links. I did see a lot of Asus RMA's for sure as you stated, but the advantages of ease of OC with that board were appealing to me even though I don't plan to OC that much. Hopefully I'll have no need to OC for a while with this setup.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

That motherboard is complete overkill for your needed. Not to mention the platform wont benefit you in gaming at all anyway, Therefore no reason to buy that motherboard or go LGA 2011. Stick with LGA 1155. Also no reason at all go to with dual x16 slots, since you'll be hard pressed to find video cards that'll saturate x8 lanes, muchless x16. Two 670s or 660s will power your monitors + resolution requirements and only need x8. Therefore I recommend the ASUS P8Z77-V LK motherboard for $150.


For gaming, I recommend the i5 3570k quad core processor if you intend on overclocking, if not then get the 3470. No need at all to go with the Sandy Bridge-E processors or the 2011 platform at all. Games simply don't scale that well past 4 cores, so having 6 cores is almost useless in gaming not to mention games tend to take no benefit from Hyper Threading. So stick with an i5.

Given then ease of overclocking the 2500k and 3570k, going with a $30 coolermaster 212+ cooler will give you 4.5Ghz clocks relatively easily. Doing some fine tuning you could reach 4.7Ghz.

Aside from being OOS, that RAM operates at 1.65V which could cause harm to Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors, so stick with RAM rated at 1.5v or less. Also you will not see ANY performance increase while gaming with higher clocked RAM. The most you will want is DDR3 1600 and that's only because it's priced so close, sometimes cheaper than DDR3 1333 which is what the RAM is going to run by default anyway, regardless of what it's factory clock is. You'll have to do some serious fine tuning/tweaking to get the RAM speed higher than DDR3 1333. Not worth the little to no performance gain.

Not a bad choice, but I think two 7970s will provide better performance with multiple monitors. Granted if it was me, I'd stick with the 670s on account of the better driver support provided by Nvidia, but as far as frames/performance when it does work correctly AMD/ATi has an edge with the 7970 and 7950, mostly due to their higher memory and the ability to make use of that memory.

With an unlimited budget, going with a separate dedicated OS SSD just isn't worth it. Get a single large SSD such as the Samsung 830 512GB. If you wanna save some money, check out the price on the Crucial M4 512GB. It's usually cheaper, but it isn't quite as fast as the Samsung 830s, but again it's not something you'll notice.

Basically both cards will hold the same information in it's memory. Think of it as RAID 1 for your video memory. What information is stored on GPU1s memory is the exact same that's stored on GPU2s memory. What is increased is the processing power.

You never mentioned a PSU. Do you need one or if you already have one, what model?

 

[LigTasm]

Looks like a decent setup...

SLI increases speed by increasing the processing power. It isn't all about RAM.

As for the processor, you can cut quite a bit off of the cost.
Look on Ebay for an unlocked ES CPU... an 8c/16t can be had for around $450 that will most likely be able to overclock just as much as the 3960k, plus you will have 2c/4t more available and 5MB more L3 cache than the 3960k.

The 6c/12t ones are also cheaper on Ebay.

DO NOT buy an octo core Xeon expecting to overclock, they do not. At all. Ever. Not even the Extra Spicy chips (I have some).

For this build OP, an 1155 setup is more than enough. As someone who owns 3 X79 powered machines and used 2500k's and 3570k's, just go 1155 and save yourself buckets of cash. Hex-core will not help you in games, although it will bloat your physics scores in synthetic benchmarks if that is what you care about.

X79 and PCI-E 3.0 support is non existent with Nvidia cards, you can registry hack to turn it on but its a 50/50 chance your system will go haywire when you try it. A good 4-slot 1155 board with the PCI-E switch will work just as well for high res gaming as an X79 system with true PCI-E 3.0 support.

 

[rss33]

Darn it guys I thought I had this figured out and then you go and put more idea in my head! I do agree the sandy bridge e is overkill for gaming but also had the thought upgrading if needed would be cheaper and esier with from the setup I posted than an 1155 board when the new techs come out. I own a corsair 1000 watt power supply.

Skills thanks for the tip on the RAM. Lig since you have owned these boards I'm taking carefull consideration to what you said as well. Guys I appreciate it. Also I typed the wrong CPU Processor model in my original post, I meant to say the 3930K not the 3960X, the 3930 oc's up to and past the x edition + it's 400 cheaper.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

I have to disagree with the future upgrade being cheaper if you stick with Sandy Bridge-E.

You do realize that just the motherboard and CPU cost nearly $1000. With that kind of budget, you could buy two mid range1155 motherboards that do what you need and two high end i5 1155 CPUs and still come out a LOT cheaper. With that in mind, whatever replaces Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge will be priced similar to what Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge is priced now. Therefore you could buy an 1155 setup right now, then when whatever new CPU/Platform replaces 1155, you could afford to upgrade to that and still come out ahead.

 

[cyclone3d]

DO NOT buy an octo core Xeon expecting to overclock, they do not. At all. Ever. Not even the Extra Spicy chips (I have some).

For this build OP, an 1155 setup is more than enough. As someone who owns 3 X79 powered machines and used 2500k's and 3570k's, just go 1155 and save yourself buckets of cash. Hex-core will not help you in games, although it will bloat your physics scores in synthetic benchmarks if that is what you care about.

X79 and PCI-E 3.0 support is non existent with Nvidia cards, you can registry hack to turn it on but its a 50/50 chance your system will go haywire when you try it. A good 4-slot 1155 board with the PCI-E switch will work just as well for high res gaming as an X79 system with true PCI-E 3.0 support.

Hrmmm.. Has anybody tried overclocking any of the ES chips with newer BIOSes?

Newest I found was from March of this year

 

[Dangman]

Since you're not suppose to sell or buy those ES chips, please stop discussing them now.

 

[Dangman]

Anyway, I concur with everything that Skillz and LigTasm said. Since you're only gaming, zero reason for you to build a socket 2011 setup. Not unless you're going for quad-Crossfire. And even then it's gonna be a tough sell.